The Winds of Change
by Shemyaza1
Summary: Bella Swan believes she has met the love of her life and is prepared to do whatever it takes to be with him forever, even if it means dying. Unfortunately the path of love is not destined to run smoothly and others also have a vested interest in her fate.
1. Filled up with doubt

**Disclaimer:**** I own nothing of Stephanie Meyer's stories, however all original characters and story concepts solely belong to me. **

**Author Note: **Normally I try to start with a dynamic event which grips the reader, but for some reason Carlisle and his musings kept getting in the way, so I let him have his head. It seemed appropriate to begin the story with their thoughts considering that it will be told primarily through the eyes of the two fathers, Carlisle Cullen and Charlie Swann.

ooOoo

" I'm the kind to sit up in his room.  
Heart sick an' eyes filled up with blue.  
I don't know what you've done to me,  
But I know this much is true:  
I wanna do bad things with you."

_**- Jace Everett, 'Bad Things' from True Blood**_

**The Winds of Change**

**Chapter 1 – Filled up with doubt**

**Forks High School, Washington State...early afternoon...**

Bella waited impatiently in the car park. They had a half day off and most of the student body couldn't wait to get out of class, Bella included. She was going to the Cullen's house for tea, or at least she would drink tea and they wouldn't which sometimes made her feel rather strange, but then they weren't exactly normal people.

She sighed and looked at her watch, Edward wasn't usually this late, in fact he had a very unfashionable hatred of tardiness which was rather endearing. She put it down to the times he had been born and grew up in. She found herself daydreaming both of a time long since gone by and also her usual daydream, so far unfulfilled, of being in Edward's arms and him making love to her. In the way of young teenage girls, her fantasies were partially from things she had read or discussed with her friends and partially from her wildest imaginings triggered off by the raging hormones that lived in every teenage girl from _whatever_ era, rather than actual hands-on experience with men and sex.

Oddly enough her fantasies, some of them very intense, never seemed to lead to her wondering about the _actual _mechanics of a frail human making love to a vampire whose bodily fluids were actually venomous. However since she fully intended for Edward to turn her into the same as he was, it seemed to be a rather moot point in her eyes.

"I thought you were going home with Edward after school." The voice of Jessica Stanley, her erstwhile friend at Forks High broke into her reverie. She found herself blushing furiously under Jessica's amused and quizzical gaze.

"I..I was...I am. He's a bit late."

Bella was furious with herself for stammering like that. To her relief she spotted Edward's sister Alice bouncing down the steps followed by her much more dignified boyfriend. _Husband. _She thought to herself. Jasper was Alice's husband. What must that be like? To be married; to be with Edward forever.

"No need to see where _your _mind is at the moment." Jessica grinned slyly. "But don't worry, I don't think he deserted you. I saw him outside the Principal's office as I was walking out."

As if in confirmation Alice came up with Jasper, following behind her as he always did with that strangely repressed and stiff way of holding himself. In her innocence it never occurred to Bella that she was the reason for his strange behaviour. "Hi Bella...he's with the Principal, something to do with one of his classes, he'll be out in a few minutes. See you over at the house, okay?"

Bella sighed and nodded. "Okay." Alice danced over to where the other two Cullens were waiting beside their car, then turned and waved cheerfully. For a moment Jasper turned and fixed her with that unnerving gaze which made Bella's smile waver. She waved back without enthusiasm and sat down on a low wall to wait for Edward.

"Do you want me to wait with you?" Jessica asked, hoping that Bella would say no. Bella laughed softly and shook her head when she realised that Jessica had one eye on her and the other on Mike Newton.

"No..it's okay, really it is. You go with Mike. I'll be fine."

"Well... if you're sure."

Bella's attention was already drifting into the realms of imagination. "It's okay Jessica, I'll be fine." She repeated.

Jessica stood for a moment watching her. Maybe she _should _stay. Forks was a pretty safe place most of the time, but once everyone had left school for the day it could be rather bleak and forbidding. The school wasn't in the middle of the town but on the outskirts. She was about to say just that when Mike Newton waved at her. She looked into Bella's eyes again and saw that she had already entered her daydream world so she shrugged.

"Okay...see you tomorrow."

Bella smiled dreamily but did not answer her. As the last student but one left the campus for the day, Bella, deep in her daydream world where she and Edward lived in utter bliss, did not see the tall dark figure watching her from the edge of the woods over the road to the school.

ooOoo

**The Cullen Residence...**

Pale shafts of watery late afternoon sunlight struggled through the leaf canopy high overhead. Eventually after struggling for a few hours of the day, they surrendered to the habitual gloom and gave up entirely, although their light behind the thick cloud cover gave out a sickly light all of its own.

Carlisle Cullen had brought his vampire family here to the north west Pacific area of the United States for that very reason and a few others it had to be said; the forests were almost virgin, some parts not even fully explored yet, and abounded with wildlife. There was more than enough to satisfy their needs and far fewer human beings to get involved with than in any of the larger cities, although he was as involved as any person could be with the lives of those in the small town of Forks given that he was a doctor.

For his family it was a good place to be and even the presence of the Quileute tribe on their reservation at La Push did not spoil their peace. Carlisle knew of the tribe of course, he also knew that their legends and myths tended to centre around wolves, he also knew that they were, in reality a lot more than myth and legend.. In Quileute legend it was Q'wati who created the first of the Quileute tribe after travelling the world teaching people how to act and giving them instructions for their futures. When Q'wati reached the Quileute land there were no people other than two wolves, so he created two humans from them and said, "For this reason you Quileute shall be brave, for you came from wolves".

Thus the legends of the shape shifters came into being; a legend which wasn't as much of a legend as people roundabout seemed to think. Only the Cullens and the Quileutes knew the real truth, that when they reached a certain stage in their development, the Quileutes gained the ability to shape-shift into wolf form and they were the natural enemies of the vampires. Their presence so close to the place where Carlisle Cullen settled his family had caused some alarm and despondency on both sides but eventually a treaty was created which gave each side some measure of peace, although mutual suspicion remained a primary factor.

Carlisle sighed and ran his fingers through already dishevelled fair hair. He had been reading up on his long-standing interest in how his people originally came about. They were anomalies among humankind, that much was true, and because of that they kept themselves aloof from ordinary people for the most part. His little family were very different from the mainstream group in that they had eschewed the taking of human life and only did so in order to turn someone who was already dying. The same could not be said for their kin who had no such fine sensibilities. The groups lived and existed apart from each other in the main, only coming together out of necessity.

The question of the origins of their vampire species which had fascinated Carlisle from the very beginning of his turning was quite simple. How? How had the Cold Ones, being the name they were known by among themselves and in myth, actually come about in the first place? He had recently come across a very ancient tome in a queer little book store in Seattle that might be of some use. It had cost a small fortune, but it was worth it. He suspected that the leathern cover was actually real skin and the pages were brittle on the corners. It now sat in his safe awaiting him. He had intended to pore over it that day but it was not to be.

The sounds of voices raised in play alerted him to the return of his children, who were not so much his and his wife's biological offspring, but rather adoptive children since vampires could not reproduce except by turning, like those Carlisle had sought to help down through the years. He heard his wife, Esme's voice also raised in greeting and when he opened the door to his study, he knew in one split second that the children had someone else with them. It wasn't a huge stretch to realise that it was the human girl who had apparently driven Edward crazy with the sweet, tangy, intoxicating aroma of her blood and who had fallen passionately in love with him.

And therein lay the root of Carlisle's disquiet. However, he formed his face into its usual pleasant lines and curved his lips into a welcoming smile as he strode out of the door to give his own words of welcome only to find that the group had filtered down into the wide area that formed the garden of the house and were sitting on the garden furniture chatting with each other. He could hear Esme in the kitchen clattering glasses and dishes which meant that she was preparing some form of refreshment for their human guest and would usually have gone in to offer her some help, but instead he stopped at the large glass doors which led onto the terrace and stood watching the by-play down below. He was not unseen...Alice's pixie face immediately turned to the figure standing quietly by the door and an anxious expression momentarily flitted across her eyes, however she said nothing to the others which allowed Carlisle to watch them undisturbed. At least for the moment.

Alice's husband, Jasper, sat stiff and upright beside his vivacious wife, occasionally his nostrils flared and more than once Alice put a gentle calming hand on his arm. Carlisle smiled wryly. Jasper's entire posture broadcasted his discomfort with being so close to Bella Swan, their human guest. Out of all of them he was possibly the most dangerous where she was concerned. He was finding it very hard to ignore the sweet yet metallic tang of her blood. It disturbed him and aroused his natural instinct to feed, hence the flared nostrils. It did the boy credit that he managed to keep his composure at all.

Rosalie was sharp-eyed and sharp voiced. She had made no bones about how she felt. Bella's presence among them put them all in great danger, although a lot of her ire was fuelled by the fact that when Carlisle had turned her after she had been raped and left dying by her fiancée, it had been originally intended for her to be Edward's mate, a desire that Edward had not shared much to Rose's anger. Even though she herself had no feelings for him, the rejection still stung.

Rose had been incensed when Edward had rashly saved Bella from being crushed by a van, simply because in doing so, and his subsequent actions towards Bella, he had given away their secret. Nobody among the humans was meant to know of their existence and Rose felt that Edward had put them all in danger with his obsession. The other thing that baffled her was Bella's apparent eagerness to push aside her mortal life for an immortal life with none of the normal pleasures, such as children. Rose simply couldn't understand that anyone would willingly choose such a life.

The situation was a highly inflammable one that could, and most likely would, explode right in their faces. Even if they survived, they would have to leave the lives they had created for themselves here in Forks and begin again.

Rosalie had a point of course. It suddenly occurred to Carlisle that Bella _also_ knew full well by now what danger she put them all, and more importantly herself, in by being just as obsessed as Edward was yet she persisted. His gaze shifted to the slender girl with her pale heart shaped face framed in lightly curled locks of rich brown hair caught back over her ears with two brown clips. As he watched, he saw Rosalie's husband Emmett make some joking gesture accompanied by a comment that instantly caused Edward to bristle and Bella to look up at him with a shy, slightly tremulous smile. Carlisle held his breath for a moment as the air between Edward and Emmett grew slightly darker and more contentious and then let it out as the impending storm calmed as quickly as it had begun, probably thanks to Jasper's innate ability to calm people which was the gift he had brought with him when he was turned.

He was also suddenly struck by the fact that Bella was still standing there stuck to Edward's side. Most girls would have taken flight at the flare up of feral anger between the two boys...no..._not _boys..._men_. However the expression in her large shining brown eyes remained the same as it always did and always reminded Carlisle of a doe caught in a deer-trap; she always looked in turn, adoring, desperate, pleading and afraid and yet strangely elated at the same time. And she would have been right to be afraid and to flee. Despite the vegetarian nature of the Cullen family, she was still with a group of extremely efficient predators who could tear her apart without a moment's compunction and whose natural prey she was.

Any ordinary human with an ounce of sense would have been afraid enough to run away as far as they could and stay away. Carlisle couldn't for the life of him work out why, despite her obvious fear, she clung to Edward and his family as if she was a drowning girl clinging to a life-raft. Was her life as a human and a mortal so dreadful that cleaving to a hundred and seven year old man stuck in a seventeen year old's body was the better alternative? He shook his head, and not for the first time since Edward had brought his awkward, clumsy girl to them. She herself had made no secret of the fact that she wanted Edward to turn her so they could be together in this all consuming, drowning love. An act which Edward refused to carry out, much to Bella's frustration.

The trouble was that there was absolutely no real reason for Bella to be turned other than her declaration that she couldn't live without Edward. She wasn't dying, she wasn't hurt, she just wanted him and life with him...even if all she got was an _un-life_ with him.

_Why? _Carlisle asked the question that he had been asking himself since the whole business began. Why would a lovely young girl, filled with life and with her blood pounding through her veins with all her life laid out in front of her, a fulfilling career, love, children, grandchildren, choose to be frozen in time and to have that blood cease to flow? Being a vampire was not a valid personal life choice as far as Carlisle was concerned. It was something that was uninvited, usually inflicted on an unsuspecting human by a supreme act of violence, but which shouldn't have _ever_ happened to_ anyone_. He could recall his own turning at a moment's notice; he could still feel the horrific pain and then the even more horrific realisation of the aberration he had become.

No..._nobody_ should be actively seeking this fate, especially not a vital, lovely young girl with everything to live for. Every time he considered Bella's desperate contention that she loved Edward desperately and wished to become a vampire to remain with him, and as much as he wanted happiness for the son he loved, Carlisle's senses screamed the wrongness of it to him.

"What troubles you?" The soft voice of his wife intruded on his thoughts. "Is it Bella again?"

He rubbed at his jaw distractedly. "It's nothing." He leaned towards his wife and kissed her on the top of her head. "I just wonder why someone so young, vital and full of life would choose..."

"She loves him." Esme interrupted abruptly. It was as simple as that for her. She was an innately kind soul and for her, the happiness of those around and close to her was paramount. If Bella made Edward happy, then she was fine in Esme's book.

"_Does_ she though?" Carlisle offered Esme a small grin of mollification as he sensed what his mate of long years was thinking.

Esme stood holding the tray with a confused expression on her face. "Does who what?"

"_Does_ Bella make Edward happy? I see intense desire, I see torment, possessiveness, protectiveness and even fear all of which she accepts readily in him, but happiness?" He sighed. "I'm just not sure that I see happiness in him..._or_ her for that matter. In fact they seem to me to be indulging in a tragedy rather than actual love. It's like watching some dark Shakespearean play with star-crossed lovers that always ends in gloom, doom and despair."

"Are you reading my mind? I thought compassion, not mind reading, was the ability you brought over with you!" She scolded, but returned his grin. Then her face turned solemn. "I do see what you mean though. Although it is _Edward _we are talking about here isn't it? He always _has_ been about the tragedy. Bella is good for him. Perhaps with her he won't go off and brood as much as he does." She put the tray down on a table. "Anyway, I thought you liked Bella...we _all _like her...don't we?"

Carlisle sensed the sudden distress in this mate of his, a woman who he loved dearly in his own way and who only wanted to please and look after the people she cared about and immediately banished his doubts to the back of his mind.

"Of _course_ I like her. And you're right. She _is_ good for Edward and she has my gratitude for giving him what has been absent in his life and something I always wanted for him." He picked up the tray and headed through the door to the garden. "Let's go and join the others."

It was a brightly smiling Carlisle, armed with tray and a beaming Esme who joined the group in the garden and when Bella turned her shy tremulous gaze onto Carlisle, he did his very best to make her feel comfortable. Alice's immediate relief wasn't lost on him though and during the afternoon he could see that same anxious look in her eyes that he had spotted from the house whenever she looked at Bella.

What was she seeing that disturbed her so? And why couldn't he quieten down that little voice in the back of his mind that told him something terrible was waiting for them all around the corner?

ooOoo

**Chief of Police's residence, Forks, Washington State...**

Charlie Swan would have been the first to admit that he didn't understand his daughter at all. Never had and never would as long as he drew breath. All he did know was that from the moment that perfect pale scrap of humanity with its thatch of silky dark hair was put into his arms he was lost. Her cloudy blue eyes had latched onto his and he felt like he was drowning in love for her.

"Those eyes will probably change." The nurse had smiled at him. She had seen the exact same confused look so many times on the faces of new fathers. "_All _newborns have those blue eyes. I think maybe hers will be brown."

Charlie had smiled but said nothing. He _knew _that his daughter's eyes would be brown, like his. Probably the only part of him that she _would _inherit. He had no idea just how true that would turn out to be.

The two things every parent wants for their child is for them to walk and talk. They live for the day their baby says the first word or takes the first step. Isabella Marie Swan, however, had her own ideas on that. When all the children around her were taking those all important first steps and saying the first words, Bella remained silent and, for the most part, unmoving. Renee had been terrified that she would never do either. It frustrated Charlie all the more because he wasn't there with her all the time. Seeing his child for a couple of weeks a year meant that any hands on fathering was non existent.

For the first year of her life it didn't really matter all that much. Bella was a lovely child and sat like a queen receiving her subjects in her stroller. If she wanted something she merely smiled that enchanting smile and held out her hand and someone would fetch it for her. There was nothing wrong with her, she simply knew that she didn't need to make the effort.

She was alone with her father who was making one of the his visits to Riverdale in California the first time she spoke a full sentence at the age of two and her subsequent actions electrified her already stunned father as she staggered up to her feet, holding onto the edge of the couch and made her way along to where her doll lay at the other end. Charlie's mouth dropped open as she grasped the doll and then abruptly sat down bumping herself hard on the edge of the coffee table, the first of many clumsy actions that were to litter her journey through life. Her mouth opened and the tears trickled down her cheeks. It was the sight of that distress that jerked him from the shock of both actions happening at once and galvanised him into leaping forward and picking her up.

"Watch the table sweetheart." He clasped his sobbing daughter to him. "You could have hurt your head."

She thrust the doll at him. "I wanted my dolly." She said firmly, thereby declaring the stubbornness that was part of her make-up...the same stubbornness that would keep her glued to Edward Cullen's side through shocking and painful events that would alter her life irretrievably.

All Charlie could think of was the elation that his princess had finally done the two most important things in her life, both at the same time. At least they knew now that there was no longer a danger of them introducing their daughter, the adult who still sat in a stroller and couldn't speak at social events. He immediately, wanted to go and tell Renee, who was having a nap in the bedroom but he knew that there were only two reasons to interrupt a woman in her sleep...the death of a celebrity and snow in July, neither of which had occurred in California that day. So instead he leaned back with his daughter on his knee and looked forward to a long life of companionship with her.

It was a companionship that was doomed from the start. His separation and subsequent divorce from Renee had meant that Bella had lived for a while in Riverdale until she was five and then moved to Arizona with her mother and her stepfather who was a baseball player. Charlie got to see her for holidays, but he found that his relationship with her was quite strained. His little girl had grown up and turned into a stranger and she seemed equally unable to bridge the chasm that now yawned between them as he was. Perhaps if either of them had even attempted to do so, the events of Bella's life may not have taken the tragic path that they finally did.

Charlie was sitting in the living room with a can of beer when he heard a car drive up and pull to a halt outside their small house with a screech of brakes. It had been a rough day what with those recent animal attacks and he was tired, but not too tired to notice that his daughter was conspicuous by her absence when he arrived back home from work..._again_. He put the beer down and walked over to the window, looping the net back just far enough to see the silver car belonging to that Cullen boy outside and his daughter emerging from the car. He chuckled when she caught her foot in the seat belt and almost fell out of the car, but his amusement was immediately tinged with concern when Edward seemed to flash to her side with impossible speed.

Concern turned to irritation when he saw Edward lift Bella up, albeit very tenderly as if she was made of porcelain, and carry her to the front door. Part of him wanted to rush to the door, open it and snarl that his daughter wasn't some cripple and that she was quite capable of walking up her own path to her own front door thank you very much. However he didn't simply because a larger and much more unwelcome part of his mind was still trying to justify movement the speed of light in an ordinary human. Also he knew that his fears about Bella went straight back to those days in her early years when he and Renee had feared that she would never walk at all. He still swore down that was why she was so clumsy now in later life.

He sat back down and gritted his teeth, although anyone close enough would have seen the small muscle jumping in his jaw. No, he had no reason to_ really_ dislike Edward, other than the fact that he was weird and actually had the nerve to date his daughter. He would be calm. Perhaps there was another reason for the appearance of unusual speed. He picked up the beer can and examined it curiously. Maybe they were making beer stronger these days.

It was a few fairly long minutes before he heard Bella saying goodnight. He switched the channel over on the television and sighed when the opening credits for True Blood rolled up with the accompanying song Bad Things by a country singer called Jace Everett. Who in the hell believed in damn vampires anyway? No wonder kids did crazy things these days, they were filled up with all this dark stuff every day. Society was heading for hell on a hand cart.

"Dad?" Bella's soft voice interrupted his dark thoughts.

He made as if he had just woken up from a nap. "What? Oh hey sweetie. Did you have a good time over at the Cullens?"

She came and stood in front of him. "You should go to bed Dad." Her tone was mildly accusing and he felt a tinge of guilt. She thought that he had been waiting up for her.

"No..no..I just sat for a minute. I only came in about an hour ago. I'm gonna get a shower and then turn in." He got to his feet and headed for the stairs. "Did you have a good time today?"

Bella had picked up the half empty beer can. "Do you want the rest of this?"

Charlie shook his head. It occurred to him that she was becoming the master of the evasive answer. She obviously didn't want to discuss the Cullens with him. "No, just pour it down the sink honey. See you in the morning."

"Night Dad."

He turned to smile at her, to tell her he loved her, but she was already in the kitchen and he could hear the sound of water running as she swilled the beer down the sink. His heart sank. He desperately wanted a better relationship with her and he'd jumped at the chance of having her to live with him when Renee had explained that she was going on the road with her husband and could he take Bella for a while. Things had almost taken off between them until the appearance of Edward Cullen in her life, then it had all gone downhill again. She had become secretive and uncommunicative. Sometimes...during the night...he heard her cry out and moan and he suspected that her relationship with the Cullen boy was responsible for her distress. He would lie in bed unable to sleep, with his hands balled into fists. Every fibre in his being told him to go and knock on the door and talk to her, but instead he remained rooted in his bed unable to move. Some sixth sense warned him that his interference would not be welcome.

As much as he wanted to like the boy Bella had picked to love, there was something strangely unwholesome about him.

He showered, put on a pair of sweats and climbed into bed. After a minute of lying there listening to the sounds of his daughter putting dishes away and probably tidying up any mess he had made, he reached over and switched off his bedside lamp and closed his eyes, determined to at least try and fall asleep.

"No!"

Some two hours later Charlie was jerked fully awake by the distressed sound of Bella's voice. Once again the desire to go to her was dampened by something else. His heart was hammering and he was cursing his inaction. _Anyone _could be in there hurting her, but deep down he knew that there was no one. He wasn't sure whether he could _actually_ hear the soft murmur of voices, but eventually he heard a deep sigh and then the night was silent once more.

ooOoo

Edward Cullen sat behind the wheel of his car after ensuring that his Bella was safely asleep in her room trying desperately not to wrench it out of its housing. She had no idea what she did to him when she gazed pleadingly into his eyes and begged him to make love to her, turn her...anything just as long as it meant that she was his forever.

"I don't want to grow old while you stay forever young." She wept when he held her and told her that they would always be together. "I want to be with you _forever._"

He slammed his hands down on the poor inoffensive steering wheel and only just caught himself in time from damaging it beyond repair. Did she actually _realise_ what the word forever meant? That her family and friends would all grow old and die and she would remain...alone?

"I won't be alone." She had insisted, huge tears rolling down her face. "I'll have you and your family."

He stared down at her implacably. "I won't turn you Bella, you have no idea what you are asking of me. I want a better life for you; a normal life with children or a career."

"No!" She had cried out and he had to place his fingers against her lips. Charlie Swan was certainly not deaf and he was just down the passage in his bedroom. "Why can't you understand? I don't _want_ a normal life, I just want you. If you won't turn me I'll ask one of the others to do it."

He sat back and stared at her aghast. "Why do you wish to give up what you haven't even experienced yet?" He asked sadly. "Wait a while, just a couple of years, go out into the world and experience life. If you still feel the same way about being turned afterwards, then I will do what you ask."

"I can't." She whispered.

He shook his head. "Why not? It wouldn't be for long and I can wait forever. It's not like I'll run out of time."

"I won't _have _forever if you don't turn me." She said slowly, the tears were falling in earnest now and they tugged at him. "And in a few years...even one year...I will then be older than you are now."

He sighed deeply, there was no reasoning with her especially when she was as distressed as this.

"I must go." He said quietly. "I have stayed long enough and your father is awake now."

She pushed the bedclothes back revealing her short nightshirt and long slender legs. She smiled enticingly and her luminous brown eyes seduced him. "He won't come in."

Edward turned away and opened the window sash. He turned back to her and smiled faintly.

"He should."

Then he was gone into the night leaving Bella to dry her tears and futilely try and sleep.

He got back out of the car and paced restlessly for a little while and then abruptly stopped and looked around him. His senses were far better developed than that of the average human and he was aware, just at the edge of his senses, that something was a little off. His head swivelled around and he concentrated hard. _There_...that faint darkness, that wisp of a thought instantly blocked tugged at the edge of his inner sight again and his eyes snapped open. Instead of being their normal golden colour, his eyes were black. He silently searched the area around the house, but found nothing untoward although his suspicions leaned heavily towards Jacob a Quileute friend of Bella's who was obviously smitten with her. He wouldn't have put it past Jacob to stand outside Bella's window like a stalker.

He cast his mind reading abilities out into the night. As usual he got nothing from Bella, but her father's thoughts were interesting to say the least, Charlie Swan did not approve of him as a suitor for Bella at all. According to Charlie, Edward was unwholesome, which drew an unwilling chuckle out of the vampire. If only Charlie knew _just _how unwholesome he was and what his daughter was pleading for he would have a fit! However Charlie was actually more worried about the fact that he couldn't get his daughter to trust him than whether Edward was wholesome or not.

He drew his mind away from the Swann house, concentrated a little harder and caught a few drifting thoughts from a neighbouring house not far away from where he was standing, but they were more fragments of dreams than active thoughts. After a while even the darkness on the edge of his inner sight cleared and he went back to the car. Perhaps he was just hungry and needed to hunt. He shrugged and got back into the car. Yes, that was it. He just needed to hunt. He would ditch the car at home and go and do just that. Anyway...it would do him good to run off some of the overwhelming and conflicting emotions Bella always aroused in him every time they were together.

As his car disappeared down the road from Bella's house, a dark figure stepped out of the trees and watched it until it wasn't even a speck on the horizon, then it turned its attention to a window on the second storey of the house belonging to the Chief of Forks Police; a window of a room where the daughter of the Chief of Police slept.

ooOoo


	2. The Old Ones

**Disclaimer:**** I own nothing of Stephanie Meyer's stories, however all original characters and story concepts solely belong to me. **

**Author Note: **As I have already state in the other sections that I write for. I write purely for my own and others' enjoyment. I don't demand reviews. I don't need them to encourage me to write, however if you wish to leave a review I will be grateful for them. All reviews will be treated with courtesy. This is a fairly short chapter just to get the story into the mood and set the background.

ooOoo

"You think that it's not magic that keeps you alive? Just 'cause you understand the mechanics of how something works, doesn't make it any less of a miracle, which is just another word for magic. We're all kept alive by magic, Sookie. My magic's just a little different from yours, that's all. "

_**- Bill to Sookie, True Blood**_

**The Winds of Change**

**Chapter 2 – The Old Ones**

**Forks High School, Washington State, lunchtime...**

The noise in the school canteen was deafening. Bella stood in the doorway for a moment and winced before letting her gaze sweep across the room.

There he was, sitting, as he usually did, at a table near the window with Rosalie, Emmett, Jasper and Alice. His head was down but he turned and gave her that strange sideways look from under long dark lashes accompanied by that mysterious half-smile of his. She half-smiled back and then realised that the faintly maliciously curious eyes of a certain group of people were on her ...watching...waiting for something...her reaction to him maybe?

_Don't look Bella, don't look. _The frantic advice flapped through her brain like a flock of frightened geese.

Too late, she cast a swift glance back at Edward and immediately regretted her action because it had the effect of transferring her friends' attention to the table by the window instead. Jessica and Eric both smirked and Mike Newton laughed out loud, but stopped abruptly with a muffled squawk as Angela Weber dug her arm into his side.

_Holy crow Bella, do you have a death wish or something? _

The colour crept up into her cheeks and now she was the centre of attention in the canteen, the very thing she sought never to be. With the colour like red flags high on her usually pale face she marched over to her friends' table and sat down. Edward and his siblings were now in a huddle, obviously discussing something serious if the venomous flick of Rosalie's gaze was anything to go by. Whatever was happening over there it ended with Edward abruptly getting up to his feet and stalking to to the door. As he passed Bella, he gave her that quick sideways glance again. She flushed even redder and sucked her bottom lip in, but she managed to keep her eyes down even though every single fibre of her being wanted to race after him. It was only by a supreme effort that she managed to keep herself firmly on the hard plastic canteen chair.

_Stupid, stupid, stupid. _She thought furiously to herself. _Everything you do, every time you blush when he looks at you or speaks to you draws attention to him and his family. They've kept to themselves all this time and kept safe and here you come blundering in and ruining it. Why don't you just take an ad out in the Forks Express and let everyone know what you know? Why do you ruin everything all the time?_

The trouble was that she could never not look at him. She felt as though she was part of him all the time...as if he were entwined around her soul and she around his. She shivered slightly and gradually became aware that the conversation around her had altered.

"...Greenbranch Road. The whole of Forks is talking about it!" Jessica had just finished saying when Bella jerked into the here and now.

"Talking about what?" She asked, confusion written all over her face.

"Weren't you _listening?_ I just said. Old Mrs Terreblanche from Greenbranch Road...the one just over from your house Bella...there was an intruder!"

Bella froze. She immediately thought of Edward sliding down from her window in the dead of night. She was about to beat herself up again mentally but forced herself to speak through numb lips. "What time was this? Did she get a good look at who it was? Was she hurt?"

Jessica raised a delicate eyebrow. "Morbid much? No she's not hurt and she said the person was in the bushes watching around one 'o clock in the morning. Some tall, thin guy dressed in black... She got such a shock that they called Dr Cullen and your dad in early this morning Bella. Didn't your dad say anything to you?"

Bella flushed again. "I didn't see him this morning. He was gone before I came down." She mumbled. "I didn't sleep very well."

Jessica laughed, a high brittle tinkling sound. "Well _d'uh_. I didn't think that the dark shadows under your eyes were from a make-up mishap. Anyway...the guy was tall, thin and dressed all in black, like I said."

"Was he an intruder or just lurking in the bushes?" Angela's gentle question let Bella off the hook, for which she shot a grateful smile at her friend.

"Is there a difference?" Jessica raised her eyebrow again.

Angela smiled apologetically. "Well...there is a difference really. If someone intruded into Mrs Terreblanche's house then he's an intruder and he could have hurt her or stolen something. If he was just standing in the bushes watching, then he wasn't an intruder and just gave her a fright."

Jessica flapped an impatient hand at them. "_Whatever.._. he was up to no good whichever he was doing."

The bell rang for end of lunch recess and there was a loud scraping and clattering of chairs as the students left the canteen and made their way to class. Bella was deep in thought as she left. Tall, thin, dressed in black. She frantically cast her mind back to what Edward had been wearing last night but her thoughts kept bouncing around her head and refused to be pinned down. She felt rather than saw Edward appear magically by her side.

"What were you wearing last night?" She blurted out before she could stop herself.

Edward stifled a chuckle. He had also heard about the intruder and had already worked out that the random thoughts he had caught the previous night had to have belonged to the old lady's dark stalker.

"Why?" He asked softly, but with a hint of laughter in his voice. "Do you think I might have had designs on Mrs Terreblanche after I left you?"

His amused tone stung her and her head jerked up. "Don't laugh at me...it _could _have been you. She might have seen you..."

"Creeping like a spider down your wall?" Edward grinned at her. "I doubt her eyesight was good enough or fast enough to have seen that...and to answer your question, I was wearing black jeans, a cream shirt and a beige jacket. The intruder was wearing all black."

They arrived at the classroom. He slid behind the desk leaving the other seat for Bella. She bit her lip and slid in beside him. She could feel the chill of his body as their knees touched under the desk.

"It _could _have been you. I was worried."

Edward sighed inwardly. Bella was no less worried than Rosalie and the others and the whole unfortunate episode meant that Carlisle would have another of those talks with him about the late night visits to Bella. He would be ever so reasonable, as Carlisle always was, but the message would be plain. _Your obsession for this human girl and hers for you is putting us all in danger._

"Will I see you tonight?" Bella's soft voice interrupted his thoughts.

He shook his head. "I don't know Bella. Carlisle wants to talk to me. If I can be there, I will. Perhaps it would be best if we gave it a rest for a day or so anyway...just until this intruder business blows over."

The hurt look she gave him pierced his heart, then it was gone and a stubborn, angry one replaced it. Her normally sweetly shaped mouth set in a hard straight line and she got up abruptly as the bell for end of class sounded. Her idea was to storm out in high dudgeon, with her head held high, just to show him that she didn't care whether he visited her ever again. Unfortunately the action failed to have its effect when she caught her foot in the strap of Mike Newton's pack which was on the floor beside his desk and went flying. Everything inside Edward's gut coiled into a tight spring of misery as he deliberately did not fly to her side. Instead it was Eric who helped her to her feet and brushed her jeans down. Edward stood there and wasn't sure to be furious or laugh when Bella shoved the boy's hand away from her rear end and stormed out of the room.

He followed slowly. She was young...so very, very young.

ooOoo

**The Cullen Residence...**

Carlisle put his medical bag down on the chair next to the front door and went into the large kitchen where Esme was standing by the window staring out at the garden beyond. He put his arms around her waist and kissed her on the cheek.

"Where is he?"

She turned and he could see her eyes were filled with worry, for them...for Edward. "He's in his room."

Carlisle smiled, gave her another kiss and then headed off towards the stairs. She moved swiftly and blocked his way at the bottom of the stairs.

"What are you going to do?"

He blinked. "Do? Nothing of course. I am just going to talk to him. You heard about the alleged intruder no doubt."

"Of course, it's the hot topic of conversation in town today. It was rather difficult to avoid it. Do you think it's Edward? Has someone seen him?" If it were possible he would have sworn that her already pale face had gone paler.

"No I don't think it's Edward. Mrs Terreblanche was quite clear about what she saw and the description was nothing like him" He soothed her. "But I don't think he's helping matters with these nightly visits which are more in line with a teenager wearing false fangs and playing Count Dracula than our kind of vampire. For one thing, he's playing with fire just by sheer virtue of the fact that he's camping out in a bedroom with the Police Chief's teenage daughter right next door to where the local Police Chief is sleeping."

"He can't hear me." Edward was standing at the top of the stairs. His bronze coloured hair was messier than usual.

"Probably more that he doesn't _want_ to hear you, rather than can't. Despite his appearance and manner, Charlie Swan is not as stupid as people believe him to be and this is his daughter you are involved with. " Carlisle's voice was stern.

"It wasn't me who was watching from the bushes." Edward came down the stairs and Esme stood aside. A sudden silence from the living room indicated that the others were all listening now. "But I _do_ think there was someone there. I heard...no...more _sensed_ some thoughts."

Carlisle turned away and headed into the living room followed by Esme and Edward. He waited until everyone was seated before saying what was on his mind. "Read or just sensed?

Edward sighed. "I would say sensed...it was a bit like trying to read Bella, only I get absolutely nothing from her, whereas from whoever this was, I got fragments of...something. I'm not even sure they were thoughts. Darkness maybe." He whispered as an afterthought.

"What is it Carlisle?" Esme had been watching Carlisle's face throughout and had seen the worried look in his eyes.

Carlisle shook his head. "It's nothing..." He seemed to be immersed in his thoughts for a long time and Emmett, not usually known for his ability to remain still for long periods, became restless. He started nuzzling Rosalie to distract her until he caught the warning look in Esme's eyes. Finally, after what seemed like an age, Carlisle looked up. "I think maybe you should go away for a couple of days, perhaps up north to Alaska."

"Go away?" Edward echoed. "I did tell Bella that I wouldn't see her for a few days but..."

"I don't mean just you." Carlisle interrupted him firmly. "I mean _all _of you."

Esme looked horrified. "Even me? But..."

"No buts. I mean _all _of you. It's not for long." His tone was almost pleading when Esme folded her arms stubbornly and prepared to make her stand for staying in her own home.

Almost in an instant Carlisle was almost completely overwhelmed with everyone talking to him all at the same time. Rosalie and Esme were hurling questions at him, Emmett was trying to calm them down verbally saying that perhaps a break away would do them all good, Jasper was standing with a pained expression on his face as he tried to calm everyone's feelings down all at the same time. Carlisle noticed, with a flicker of amusement, that the lad's eyes were practically crossed with the effort.

Carlisle remained silent and unmoving through the arguments and Esme finally seemed to realise that he was being utterly serious. "All right. So do we have time to pack? What about your clinics at the hospital?"

"He's not going Esme." Alice's quiet voice broke in. "Carlisle means all of us..but not him. He's staying."

Esme turned to her, face filled with confusion and bewilderment. "_What?_" She looked at Carlisle. "What does she mean, you're not going? If there's danger that threatens all of us, then we all stick together. I am not leaving you to face anything bad alone and that's final."

"Is it the Volturi?" Rosalie asked anxiously.

Edward who had not spoken up to now finally found his voice. "Is it to do with Bella? If she's in danger I am not going _anywhere_..." He gripped Alice by her arm causing Jasper to stand up abruptly and move protectively to her side. "_What did you see?_"

"It's not the Volturi..." Alice spoke again. "And it's not Bella...at least not directly. Someone is coming. Someone from Carlisle's past." She stopped and screwed her eyes shut in an effort to see what was hidden from her, but finally gave up. "It's no good. I can't see beyond that. All I can tell you is that Bella is not in danger. I see Carlisle meeting with this person from his past, I can see that it's something serious and then it's far too hazy."

The tumult of voices broke out again and while Carlisle was pleased that his little family didn't want to leave him to face whatever this new danger was alone, he was adamant that it was what he needed to do and finally managed to persuade them that they should go, that night. He would call the school tomorrow and say that they were taking the kids out of school to make a family visit, then he would wait, for whatever...whoever it was that Alice had seen in her vision.

ooOoo

**Chief of Police's residence, Forks, Washington State...**

Time had never moved so slowly for Bella. It was the most horrible feeling she had ever had. She was angry with Edward and yet at the same time desperately wanted to see him. The minutes ticked by interminably but eventually the clock downstairs in the living room chimed midnight. _Where was he? _For a horrible moment she thought that maybe her storming out escapade and not talking to him for the rest of the school-day had worked and he was making good his threat to go away for a few days. The sick feeling she got every time she thought about not seeing him even for just a few days threatened to engulf her. What if he thought she was childish today and had decided not to see her ever again. Terror struck her right between the eyes and she felt as though her heart had stopped.

_Breathe Bella, breathe. _She whispered to herself. It was now quarter past midnight and her sleepless eyes were now riveted to her bedroom window. She had left it unlocked and pushed open slightly and could feel the cold night air seeping through the small gap. She froze as she heard her father's steps on the stairs. The steps stopped outside her door and she heard him say her name very softly. She sat very still. The very last thing she needed or wanted was her dad in the bedroom when Edward appeared. Moment's later the steps resumed and she heard her father's door click shut.

_Now _she could breathe.

Half past midnight and still no Edward. The panic was starting to expand inside her chest like a huge balloon. Her heart was thumping painfully and she was beginning to realise that he wasn't coming at all. Hot tears burned behind her eyes and threatened to spill over. He wasn't coming, he had gone away and she was stupid and young and clumsy. There was no way in the world that he would _ever_ choose her...the females of his kind were beautiful and she certainly wasn't even close to being that. She slunk down under the comforter and allowed the hot tears of teenage self-pity soak her pillow. Eventually her eyelids, swollen with crying and heavy with exhaustion fluttered down to her cheeks and she drifted into an uneasy sleep.

ooOoo

**The Cullen Residence later that night...**

Bella wasn't the only one who was wide awake well past midnight, although Carlisle had the excuse that his kind never actually slept...ever. No lying in the coffin during the day... no turning into a bat at night. The Cold Ones couldn't be killed by plunging a wooden stake into their hearts and even if the average human had the strength to plunge a stake through the marble-hard skin, they didn't have the speed to catch them.

It occurred to Carlisle that everything which made the vampire of general myth and lore seductive was missing from them. Except perhaps the sparkling skin. He sat in his study with on Tiffany lamp switched on which cast a warm glow over his desk. The study was in a good position in the house to watch out for unwelcome visitors. So far, his visitor had failed to appear. He sighed and, using a pair of rubber ended tweezers, carefully turned the delicate pages of the tome he had bought in Seattle and read out loud, translating as he went.

"Vampires are beings of folklore and mythology that basically exist by feeding off the life-force of humans and/or animals. Usually, they are "undead" or resurrected corpses, who live off the blood of other beings. Most popular legends refer to the blood-drinking undead in Eastern Europe, but many other various cultures and regions have similar creatures. Some are non-human, or animal, bats, dogs, spiders, etcetera. Vampires are an extremely popular inspiration for various fictional works.

In Babylonian demonology, there were vampiric beings called Lilu, and further back, in Sumerian legend, were Akhkharu, who would prowl the night killing newborns and pregnant women. The Jewish adapted Lilith from one of the demons, called Lilitu. There are vampiric beings in India, found in Sanskrit folklore, called vetalas; ghouls who inhabit corpses. The Indian religion Hinduism has various mythological legends of blood-drinking gods and goddesses, and also humans, considering reincarnation is a part of Hinduism, and one leading a sinful, or unclean life may be reincarnated as reanimated corpse attacking the living at night. The Egyptian goddess Sekhmet became enslaved to her bloodlust after killing humans, and was only sated by drinking alcohol tinted to look like blood. The strix, appearing in Roman stories, was a nocturnal bird who fed on human flesh and blood. "

He chuckled to himself...so far the book wasn't telling him anything he didn't know about his own kind. Although the Lilu were interesting, since they were predominantly considered to be incubae and not actually vampires. No...what he needed to know were the origins much further back in time. Almost in pre-history. He sighed to himself. Perhaps there was something further on in the book. He bent over the book and began to laboriously translate the language it was written in which was, oddly enough, Aramaic.

The clock chimed four in the morning and Carlisle was beginning to think that Alice might have been wrong. Not so much about the vision, but about when it was supposed to happen. He stretched and rubbed his chin. Perhaps it was time to take a break...watch a movie perhaps. Esme and the children would be with the Alaskan coven by now.

He was just about to carefully close the book when his eye was caught by a passage. It stood out to him simply because it was in archaic olde English. He felt a frisson of excitement and forgot about why he was sitting there in the study on his own in the house for the moment. He translated the olde English into the modern vernacular and read the passage aloud.

"This world is older than any of us know. Contrary to popular mythology, it did not begin as a paradise. For untold aeons demons walked the earth. They made it their home, their...hell. But in time, they lost their purchase on this reality. The way was made for mortal animals, for man. All that remains of the Old Ones are vestiges, certain magicks, certain creatures. Earth was originally ruled by these huge, powerful, pure-breed demons, and the demon races that exist on Earth today are hybridized with humans and other species. (1) Of these there are many, including at least two species of vampyr...those from whom the common myth and folklore so beloved by ignorant and fearful man have derived and another, lesser known species about which little is known other than they kept strictly to themselves. Both however spring from demonic stock and there was a little known myth that declared that the lesser known species were, in fact, Old Ones...in other words, pure demons.

The Old Ones possess many different shapes and powers, but all of them are gigantic. They were worshipped as gods, ruled over vast territories, commanded fearsome armies, and constantly made war against each other. They also did not seem to live and die the way mortals do. In short, under the Old Ones' rule, the world was a living hell."

Despite his constantly icy body temperature Carlisle actually shivered when he read that. The oldest and most powerful of their order were the Volturi. Their libraries held hideously ancient documents and books. Carlisle had seen a fair few of them when he had sojourned with them before leaving and creating his own family. He remembered that in the midst of the massive, gloomy library in Volterra there had been one section that nobody but Marcus, Caius and Aro entered and it was filled with the most ancient of works, some were scrolls dated from Sumerian times. They themselves never spoke of the world before the time of man, but it would seem that perhaps the Cold Ones did come from demonic stock after all.

He sat back in the chair feeling as though someone had hit him with a sledgehammer. Were they the Old Ones of legends? Yet they weren't gigantic, although their powers were considerable. He could quite see vampires like Caius and the others ruling over vast territories and commanding terrible armies. He tried to imagine a massive army of vampires...newborns with older vampires as commanders and his stomach shrank. He carefully closed the book with trembling hands.

"It is a terrible thought is it not, my friend? The notion of a massive vampire army, one comprising of pure demons, unleashed upon unsuspecting mankind."

Carlisle whirled around and sprang into a defensive crouch. His sharp eyes pierced the gloom and deep shadows in the study.

"Do you not recognise my voice old friend?" One of the shadows moved and Carlisle was perched to spring at a seconds notice. The shadow coalesced into the shape of a tall, thin man dressed entirely in black. "You have nothing to fear from me Stregone Benefico. We have a common problem and for the moment I come in peace"

Carlisle straightened up. His jaw clenched. "Ezekiel." He said between gritted teeth. "What are you doing here?"

ooOoo

1. This particular part of the text Carlisle reads out aloud can be credited and attributed to the writers behind the Joss Whedon series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It seemed an appropriate statement for the purpose of the plot of this story.


	3. A Clear Matter of Forensics

**Disclaimer:**** I own nothing of Stephanie Meyer's stories, however all original characters and story concepts solely belong to me. **

**Author Note: **

ooOoo

"Nick: (Talking about the missing head of a decapitated DB) I'll find it.  
Grissom: (Finds a toupee on the ground near the body) Hey, Nick?  
Nick: Yeah?  
Grissom: I think I found a toupee. Our vic may be bald.  
Nick: Thanks, that will help me distinguish it from the other severed heads I find out here. "

_**- Way to Go, Episode 624, CSI Las Vegas**_

**The Winds of Change**

**Chapter 3 – A Clear Matter of Forensics**

**Forks Police precinct, Washington State early morning...**

Charlie Swan was poring over possible witness accounts on the intruder case when the large slim envelope dropped on his desk in front of him. He looked up in query.

"Reports from the Medical Examiner and forensics in Port Angeles on those animal killing cases." Charlie's deputy, Mark, also put down a paper cup of Forks' Diner's best coffee and and brown bag of donuts. Charlie nodded his thanks and absently too a sip from the coffee which he swallowed down without thinking and then had a coughing and choking fit as the boiling coffee seared its way down his gullet.

"The coffee's hot." Mark said cheerfully, slinging himself into a chair on the opposite side of the desk.

"You could at least have told me." Charlie croaked once the tears had stopped and his vocal chords were recovering from the trauma of what felt like first degree burns.

Mark raised both eyebrows. "How was I to know you'd chug it down like a pitcher of beer?"

Charlie shook his head in exasperation and cleared his throat noisily. "Did you check in on Mrs Terreblanche like I asked you to?"

"Yep, sure did." Mark's grin widened until it split his clean cut, all American boy features.

"And?"

"If you ask me I think she was quite disappointed that her stalker didn't come back." Mark quipped, but subsided when Charlie raised his own eyebrow. "She's fine, nothing to report. Her grandson turned up and is staying with her until things settle down. Seems like a nice guy. Something in computers in Seattle, says he can work from here."

"I guess we should have a look at these." Charlie lifted the envelope and stared at it.

"_After_ breakfast? I'm guessing the photographs of the bodies won't be pretty."

Charlie decisively slit the envelope open and slid the contents out on his desk. He grinned up at Mark. "Hold your breath then and if you want to puke, don't you dare use my wicker waste basket. Last time you did that it took me days to get the small chunks out of the wicker."

"Which reminds me...how's things with Bella these days? You two getting along any better now?" Mark slung his feet onto the edge of the desk without thinking. Charlie looked up and glared at the offending feet which were immediately removed. "Sorry boss."

Charlie examined the photos and didn't answer for a minute or so. "Oh you know, teenager stuff. She's quiet, I'm quiet, neither of us know what we're supposed to say to each other. I have no idea what's going on in her mind and she doesn't _want_ to know what's going on in mine...not that I blame her any. I think maybe there's some biological imperative that I _can't_ understand her because I'm not a teenager. Hell I can't even _remember_ what I thought or felt when I was her age." He shoved one of the photographs, which appeared to be a close-up of a half eaten leg, over to the deputy. "What does that look like to you?"

Mark picked the photograph up and peered at it one way, then he turned it the other way. "A bite...which was what we thought it was. No prizes for guessing that."

"Maybe not." Charlie grunted. "And the ME agrees with you...us. What he _doesn't_ agree with is what animal made the bite mark. We said a rabid bear..._he_ says that the mark is from human teeth."

Mark's face blanched with shock. "Human?" He peered closer at the photograph. "How did we miss that?"

"Oh I don't know...maybe because we weren't actually looking for a cannibal?" Charlie started to go through the lab reports. "Hello...there's still one to come, they managed to lift a saliva sample. They're testing it for DNA as we speak. Now that sounds hopeful...except for the fact that we seem to have a full blown psychopath on our doorstep who eats his food raw. You going to throw up?"

Mark had gone distinctly green around the gills. The hearty breakfast he had indulged in at the Diner only an hour ago was threatening many happy returns. "I'll be fine..." He gulped and heaved. The chair clattered backwards as he jumped up and headed for the john.

"Like I said." Murmured Charlie. "_Never_ use the wicker basket..."

He picked up the photograph of the half-eaten leg again and his mouth twisted in anger and disgust. What kind of fucking animal did stuff like this? The grief over his deceased friend started to well up again...it was hard to think of his friend of so many years just being slaughtered and eaten like some animal. This was one of those times when the badge and the job just got him right where he lived. Quiet little Forks, where nothing ever happened and where the police numbered only two and a dispatcher and where people lived out their lives in quiet and peace had suddenly become a place of darkness and evil.

ooOoo

**The Forensics Lab, Port Angeles, Washington State**

"Bob, you need to come and take a look at this."

The Port Angeles ME looked up from where he was busy writing a report on a recent autopsy. The Lab Technician, a woman in her late thirties with considerable experience in her profession looked distinctly disturbed and perhaps even a little alarmed.

The technician led the way into the lab but didn't go further in than the threshold. She pointed wordlessly at the bench on which sat the various equipment used to test evidence and test samples. For a moment the ME saw nothing and he was about to ask her what she was so het up about he noticed that there was a pale greenish stain on the bench and what appeared to be a dark burn mark, as though the substance had tried to burn through the material of the bench.

"What the hell?" He turned to the technician, bafflement written over his florid features.

The technician shrugged. "I don't know. It's saliva from those animal deaths in Forks, I was just about to test it when it did that."

The ME walked further into the room and bent over the sample. "It looks harmless now, we need to be careful with it though."

"You think?" The woman muttered. She also came further into the room. She started to arm length protective gloves. "Sorry, I just got a shock. It melted right through the glass and started to burn a hole in the bench. It was like it was alive or something. I'll put it in the Class III BSC." (1)

"Any ideas yet as to what it might be?"

The woman shrugged. "Apart from saliva of some sort? If that's really what it is. Whatever it is, it's some kind of venom by the looks of initial testing, but from what kind of animal, I have no idea. Maybe some kind of snake got at the body parts."

The ME looked askance at the saliva specimen, now sitting innocently on the bench. "Do your best Irma, that's all anyone can do. All I know is that these Forks murders are starting to be a major pain in the ass. Test for venom, see if you can narrow it down, but I don't hold out any hope of it leading to the perpetrator. Not unless the murderer has venomous teeth!"

"I'm on it." She began to carefully lift as much of the specimen as she could, warily using a small metal spatula. There was no undue reaction between the metal and substance and she let out a sigh of relief and transferred it to the BSC.

"Venomous teeth." The ME chuckled to himself as he headed back to his office and his report. "Whoever heard the like?"

ooOoo

**Chief of Police's residence, Forks, Washington State early evening...**

Bella pushed her Salisbury Steak around her plate in a desultory fashion. She cupped her chin in one hand and stared out of the window in the small breakfast nook where she and Charlie usually ate their meals.

"Not hungry?"

She tried hard not to let the tears well up and didn't turn to answer her Dad until the one that escaped had trailed down her cheeks and she had managed to surreptitiously wipe it away with the sleeve of her sweater. It seemed like all she could do that day was try not to cry. There was an entire dam of water behind her eyes. Didn't Edward_ realise_ just what he put her through when he did stuff like run away? She had hoped that the other Cullen kids would be at school today, but they had been conspicuous by their absence. That meant that the whole family had upped stakes...stakes...vampires...hah! Let nobody ever say that her sense of humour had gone, except that all of her funnies remained inside her head and _she_ didn't feel much like laughing in there at all.

Why was she even bothering with someone who either ran away every time he had an emotion he couldn't deal with or was so protective that if she broke a nail he was threatening everyone with death? But then when Edward skipped town he didn't usually drag his family along with him...which meant that she _wasn't _the reason for his abrupt flight northwards. At least that's where she thought he had gone.

All of which didn't really make her feel any less abandoned and hurt. If they had gone for some other reason he _could_ have trusted her and told her couldn't he?

_Trust you? All stupid things you do with regard to him and his family? You idiot Bella...just the fact that you have involved yourself with Edward to the extent you have puts them and everyone around you in danger._

That awful niggling voice of her conscience poked at her from the back of her mind. She looked over at Charlie and tried for a wan smile. "Sorry Dad, maybe I'll plate it up and eat it later. I just don't feel very hungry right now."

Charlie looked down at his own dinner. He wasn't feeling all that chipper himself. For some reason every time he looked at the meat on his plate it translated itself into what remained of his friend. Perhaps now was a good time to turn vegetarian.

"I'm not doing too good with it either." He confessed and was happy to see that this raised a slight look of concern and a small smile from her.

He caught himself almost telling her about the new developments and the human bite mark element and only stopped himself just in time. She was upset enough. The last thing she needed was for him to tell her that quiet little Forks was the current hotspot for a psychopath who took bites out of his victims. Seventeen year olds generally felt like they had the whole world on their shoulders as it was. No need to destroy what little peace of mind she might have left.

"Do you want to talk about it?" He ventured, gathering his courage in both hands.

She seemed to freeze like a deer in the headlights. "What about?"

He shrugged. "About whatever it is that's bothering you. You haven't seen much of that Cullen boy over the past couple of days. Had a spat?"

Bella's heart stopped again. She swallowed past the ball of misery in her throat to answer him and was pleased when her voice sounded matter of fact and not wobbly with unshed tears.

"He and his family have gone away for a little while. Up north I think, to their family in Alaska."

Charlie shook his head. "Not all of them. Dr Cullen is still in Forks. Only Mrs Cullen and the kids have gone. I saw him earlier today."

She had gone pale with shock. Why had Carlisle stayed behind? The first faint glimmer of hope leapt up in her. Perhaps she could make some excuse to go up to the Cullen house and then talk to Carlisle. She needed to know whether Edward still wanted to see her. The sound of the doorbell jolted her from her frantic planning. Charlie got up and answered it and Bella recognised the sound of the Deputy's voice. Charlie invited Mark into the living room and they seemed to be discussing something to do with the animal killings case. Some pathology report on saliva or something equally gross. Bella tried not to think about innocent people being torn apart by animals so she only listened with half an ear until one word sprang out at her from the low conversation in the other room.

"...venom."

_Venom!_

Bella crept over to the half open door to the living room area and concentrated. They could be talking about snakes of course, but there _was _one other creature around Forks that had venom.

After a few minutes of eavesdropping she was shaking from head to foot and wishing that she hadn't bothered. The bodies _hadn't_ been killed by animals, they had been bitten by human teeth and there was venom in the bites and that could only mean one thing. She straightened up from her crouching position behind the door, overbalanced and nearly fell over. She clutched onto the side of the kitchen work bench and managed to stop herself from falling. The feelings of fear and apprehension were overwhelming. She needed to go and see Carlisle, now. He needed to know what the police had found out. Was this why he had sent Edward and the others up north? It didn't once occur to her that Carlisle might already have known about this new development so intent was she on heading up to see him.

Her father and Mark had stepped into Charlie's small study and the computer room just off the living area by this time and she took the opportunity of slipping out unnoticed, grabbing the keys to her truck and her jacket as she went.

Moments later she was speeding up the road to the Cullen house and Charlie had gone into the kitchen to tell her that he had to go into work. He stood in the kitchen and scratched his head. Where in hell had she gone off to now? He sighed and grabbed a piece of paper and pen from the drawer. He scribbled her a note to let her know that the FBI had been called into the case and he needed to be at the station to meet them.

ooOoo

**The Cullen Residence later that evening...**

"You have a visitor."

Carlisle came to stand with his current house guest and watched as the red rattletrap of a truck bounced up the long driveway leading to his home. He frowned. What was she doing here? She must know that Edward wasn't at home.

"You should get rid of her." Ezekiel intoned in his sepulchral voice. "We still have much to discuss and time is running short. This child must _not _be here now."

"I know that." Carlisle snapped irritably. "However she is a dear friend of this family and my son and I will not be rude. Perhaps you need to make yourself scarce. Your nocturnal appearances have had their own little impact on this town and she's perfectly capable of putting two and two together."

Ezekiel stared at him for a moment, then he inclined his head. "I will go, but you must ensure that she leaves quickly."

Carlisle shook his head. "I can't guarantee anything. I will see what she wants and it will take as long as it takes."

He half suspected that Edward had done one of his abrupt 'runners' and not really explained to Bella where he was going or why. One of these days Edward was going to learn that young women of modern day didn't react like delicate Victorian ladies and he should stop treating her as if she was made of glass or dim. However he pushed those thoughts down, parked his friendly smile on his face again and went to open the front door.

As he approached the door he could see her through the glass. She was obviously agitated and certainly looked to him as though she had been crying. He mentally shook his head in exasperation. _Oh Edward, Edward...you have absolutely no idea how to behave with this young woman at all do you?_

He opened the door and smiled at Bella in welcome. "Bella, how _lovely_ to see you. Edward's not here I'm afraid...in fact none of them are, but do come in. What can I do for you?"

ooOoo

An hour later Carlisle watched anxiously as Bella headed out to her truck The news she had given him about the venom found in the bites was not news to him. As the doctor in Forks he had also been notified of the findings. He had his own ideas on who was responsible but had managed to reassure the worried girl that it was nothing to do with his family.

Fielding her questions about Edward had been harder to achieve. The trouble was that he had absolutely no idea what was going through his son's mind as far as Bella was concerned. The fact that Edward continually failed to actually communicate properly with her worried him. Edward was acting like some self-righteous, over- protective Victorian father when it came to Bella and this augured badly should Edward acquiesce to her demand for him to turn her. If she was turned, then she would not be the frail victim Edward obviously saw Bella as at this point in time, she would be a newborn with all the feral bloodlust of a child unable to control her own rabid desires. Edward would have a lot of adjusting to do.

Bella herself was showing no signs of maturity in any shape or form. She was a teenager in love; both with the_ idea_ of love and Edward. As far as Carlisle could see, it was his son's very differences from other human males, his pale physical beauty and topaz eyes, that set him apart as far as she was concerned. He was the epitome of seduction for her and she was entranced. She was also very young and although she was the same age as Edward when Carlisle turned him, there was no urgent reason for her to be turned, but he understood her anxiety perfectly even though she hadn't put it into words.

She was concerned that if more time went by she would be older than Edward and getting older than him worried her. It was her greatest fear and there was absolutely no way he or Edward could comfort her.

"She is young." His guest commented as he glided down the stairs. "This mortal child. She reeks of decay as all mortals do."

Carlisle stared at him. "She's only seventeen."

"As I said...young and reeking of her mortality. Such a shame. Humans are so frail and have such brief lives. Their light is like a brilliant candle, snuffed out far too soon."

"It is possible..._probable_...that my son Edward will turn her." Carlisle said through gritted teeth.

Ezekiel turned to him and stared until he felt extremely uncomfortable. Finally he spoke.

"As to that, it is part of the discussion that you and I must have. Will there be any further interruptions, a pizza delivery boy perhaps?"

Carlisle let out a reluctant snicker. "When I say we're vegetarians Ezekiel, I meant that we do not drink human blood. Human food is still extremely distasteful for all of us."

"Well, well...as you say...I am assuming that the wine in your cellar is drinkable though?"

Carlisle nodded. "It is... I started collecting it while I was in Italy."

"Then I will imbibe a small glass while I explain to you why I am here."

ooOoo

**The Denali coven, Alaska...**

Eleazar sat down beside Edward as they watched the others from the coven at play. Esme was doing her level best to not worry about what was happening with Carlisle back in Forks, but everyone could see that she was worried and just putting a face on it. Alice, Jasper, Rosalie and Emmett had gone hunting with Garrett, leaving Carmen and Kate to entertain Esme and Edward who preferred to sit and brood on his own personal problems, a fact which apparently had not escaped Eleazar's sharp eyes.

"So it's not the little human this time." Eleazar teased. The last time Edward had arrived on their doorstep had been after the first time he had smelled Bella's wonderful exotic scent and realised that not only did he either want to eat her or protect her, it also fascinated him that her mind was a closed book to him.

Edward snorted, but then had the grace to look a little embarrassed. "Not entirely, although it's probably just as well I am away for a while." He sighed. "No, this time Carlisle insisted that we come. Alice had a vision in which he was going to get a visitor of some kind, someone from his past. He wouldn't hear of us staying...said it was safer for us if we _didn't_ get involved."

Eleazar frowned. He started to sift through his many memories of his time in the Volturi guard. A visitor from the past could and usually did mean trouble on the horizon.

"A vampire from another coven do you think?" He asked.

Edward shrugged. "I don't think so. I did get a name from his thoughts though."

"And this name? You did not recognise it?"

Edward shook his head. "No...I have never heard it uttered...the name was Ezekiel."

Eleazar sucked in a sharp breath, but when Edward looked curiously at him and waited for enlightenment, he changed the subject instead, but from what Edward could see in Eleazar's eyes it was a name that seemed to fill him with foreboding. Eleazar got to his feet and clapped a hand on his shoulder.

"Carlisle is a survivor Edward. He has lived a long time and made many enemies, but he has also made many friends. And now, if you will forgive me, I will leave you to your daydreaming about the lovely Bella and go and speak to Esme. As always you and yours are welcome to stay here as long as you wish."

Edward inclined his head. "We are grateful Eleazar."

The other vampire smiled at him and sped over to Esme's side. Whatever he said to her made her laugh and Edward was pleased to see it, but his pleasure was somewhat overshadowed by worry for Carlisle.

Who _was_ this mysterious Ezekiel and what did he want from them?

ooOoo

1. The **Class III Biological Safety Cabinet** is a totally enclosed, ventilated cabinet of gas-tight construction and offers the highest degree of personnel and environmental protection from infectious aerosols, as well as protection of research materials from microbiological contaminants. Class III cabinets are most suitable for work with hazardous agents that require Biosafety Level 3 or 4 containment. All operations in the work area of the cabinet are performed through the attached rubber gloves. The Class III cabinet is operated under negative pressure. Air supply is HEPA-filtered, and the cabinet exhaust air is filtered by two HEPA filters in series, or HEPA filtration followed by incineration, before discharge outside the facility .


	4. A Prophecy Unbound

**Disclaimer:**** I own nothing of Stephanie Meyer's stories, however all original characters and story concepts solely belong to me. **

**Author Note: **

ooOoo

"**Illyria**: Do you know what you were when I was young? You were the muck at our feet! We called you the ooze that eats itself. You were pretty at night, you sparkled and you stank! You still stink of it!

**Angel**: Will you just shut up for once! 

**Illyria**: What!

**Angel**: My God, the speechifying! Has it ever occurred to you that right now might not be the best time for when-we-were-muck stories!"__

_**- Illyria the God King, Old One to Angel, Time Bomb, Angel the Series**_

**The Winds of Change**

**Chapter 4 – A Prophecy Unbound**

**The Cullen Residence...**

The heavy sheets of rain that had hammered down through the early hours had now simmered down to a heavy drizzle, but the sky promised more of the heavy rain throughout the day if the deep grey clouds were anything to go by. Situation normal as far as the Pacific North West of the United States was concerned.

It was mornings like these that Carlisle sometimes envied humankind. It might have been quite cosy to stand in his kitchen nursing a hot cup of coffee while staring out at the dripping gardens. As it was, he felt neither cold nor could he stomach coffee. It smelled and tasted like ash to him. Not being able to eat or drink ordinary food now was one of the things he missed most about being human. On the many occasions that he passed the local diner he often thought that the Cheeseburger and Fries_ looked_ appetising but smelled awful. The food that Esme cooked for Bella always looked lovely and smelled putrid. When they were turned something happened to their taste buds and sense of smell. Instead of food, the Cullens kept animal blood in the refrigerator or they hunted in order to feed.

Ezekiel and he had burned the early morning oil and discussed many things. Now all of those things were busy crowding the inside his skull and not leaving much room for his brain. There was so much to think about and some heavy decisions to make. It was interesting that some of the things that Ezekiel had revealed to him were not entirely a surprise.

They had faced each other across the large shining expanse of the modern glass and wood dining table; an incongruous setting for two immortals who had seen the worst and best of the world. Carlisle Cullen aka Stregone Benefici and Ezekiel the Wanderer, only one of many names he was known by.

The hood of Ezekiel's cloak was now thrown back revealing his face for the first time. Ancient was probably the mildest word that sprang to Carlisle's mind, but Ezekiel was beyond ancient. Nobody knew his origins and he himself never spoke of them, but Carlisle and others, like the Volturi, believed that he was one of the original fallen angels. He existed in the world between that of the supernatural; the vampire, the werewolf, succubus, demon and shape-shifters and that of men...humans and mortals, frail, flawed and yet so courageous when the need drove them. As such Ezekiel carried the prophecies of the world and his appearance was never taken lightly.

_Damn ancient prophecies and their accompanying portents and signs to hell and gone! _Carlisle thought savagely to himself. _Why were they always so complicated and unclear? Why couldn't just one ancient seer come right out and say...okay...in two thousand years this will happen or that and it will result in this...end of story?_

He had said as much outright to Ezekiel, but the Wanderer had merely smiled enigmatically at the frustration in Carlisle's voice. "Where would the fun be in that? The whole idea of ancient mystical prophecies is that you have to sit and work them out. Follow the signs. The signs and portents are what leads up to the actual event and it is from those that you have to sift the wheat from the chaff."

"I knew there was some reason why we vampires don't get involved in the supernatural or esoteric."

Ezekiel took a sip of the ruby red wine and swilled it around his mouth appreciatively before swallowing. "And that is a part of both yours and the others' existence that many of us have never understood. Why do you continue to deny that which is so obviously a part of what you are? You and your kind are part demon...your species is the nearest to pure demon that currently exists on earth now. Whatever issues you may have with your condition, the esoteric and the supernatural is part of the reason you exist in the first place, therefore any ancient prophecies and their signs apply to you all. I especially do not understand _you _Stregone. Here you are trying to live a normal life among humans and for what purpose? You can_ never_ be that again. Nor can your little..._family..." _

He left his words trailing, but their meaning was clear. For their privacy and their deception among humankind to remain intact, Carlisle's children _had_ to 'grow' up and do what all young people did; leave school, go to college...work in the community and it would be hard for them if that meant leaving the coven. They would be alone without the support of the older members. Living among many humans meant the strain of always hiding what you were...and worst of all, resisting temptation. Here in Forks, a small community, the temptations were not so obvious or as many as in the bigger more populated human cities.

"Be that as it may...and I am not saying you are wrong, for the moment it seems that we have more pressing matters to worry about." Carlisle replied calmly, but his calm was all on the surface. The things that Ezekiel had revealed to him had set his stomach churning. "You are _sure _about this...prophecy?"

Ezekiel stared at him with a measured glance for a good long while before answering. "Stregone...we are what was known as the ancient order of Magi, _this_ is what we do. We are the Keepers of the Prophecies, those that are known and there are not many which are unknown to us. We track and observe the signs, we record the portents. It was our kind who prophesied the coming of the Prophets in ancient Judea and one in particular whose name we shall not speak here."

"Yes..." Carlisle murmured. "And look how well _that _worked out!"

Ezekiel laughed...a rusty sound, almost as if it was part of him that he had not used for a very long time. "As you say...however, what would have happened had he not been born and eventually fulfilled his destiny? His death was certain from the very beginning, this was not important...it was his message and the message sent by his death that was important and whole generations of humans who might otherwise have been lost, found their path and their faith to carry on."

"And whole generations of humans used a twisted version of his message to torture and murder in the name of their God." Carlisle interrupted.

The Wanderer nodded sadly. "Indeed...and that _also_ was prophesied. But we digress, you ask if we are certain? We can only go by the signs and they _all_ point to the return of the Old Ones and this is not a situation that will augur well for either humankind or the half-demons who occupy the world alongside their world...the world humans seem intent on burying and pretending does not exist. The way _you _live adds _credence _to it not existing, existing as you do alongside them and yet completely separate which is completely _against _your nature. How long before someone in power among the humans understands the nature of things and sends their armies against you, to eradicate you? You are not invulnerable, you can be killed. Because of the lack of belief in the supernatural world among humankind, they are no longer vigilant, even as vigilant as they were in times past. The balance is shifting my old friend. Out of strife and of love will come the vessel; from the vessel, born in pain and blood, will come the conduit and it is that conduit who will enable the Old Ones to awaken from their long sleep and come to take back what they feel is rightfully theirs. There are many of us who do not wish to return to the old days. You and even your kind, with perhaps the exception of Marcus and Aro, did not live through that time. Trust me, they were terrible days. If the Old Ones come, then this earth will become their playground once more and you will be naught but their servants in all things."

Carlisle's stomach was now turning cartwheels. "And humans?"

Ezekiel shrugged. "A food source, nothing more. Bred like cattle to feed the demon population. Most other animals will die out because there will be no need for them, some will be kept of course, but there will be little opportunity for you to survive as a...vegetarian. The planet will be split by constant war waged by terrible armies led by the Old Ones."

"All this because of some prophecy?" Carlisle was aghast.

"The signs point to it Stregone...and indeed some might say it has already begun. Somehow...I have not yet discerned how, it involves your little family and the mortal child Isabella Swan. It is just not clear to me to what _extent _she is involved."

Carlisle's heart sank. _Out of love and strife will come the vessel; from the vessel born in pain and blood will come the conduit_...the words hammered through his brain. "The conduit...is this a child perhaps? Is this is so, then you and I both know that such a birth is not possible. We are talking about the progeny of a vampire and a human. Even if it _were_ possible, such a child could not survive and certainly the mother would die."

Ezekiel raised an eyebrow. He neatly evaded the question of whether it was a child or not, thereby confirming to Carlisle that it did mean just that. "There are those who would tell you that the vessel _carrying _the child is unimportant. It is only necessary for the conduit to survive." He leaned across the table and held Carlisle's unwilling gaze with his own. "I have, however, observed that your son Edward and the mortal child have created a bond between them. I do not advise..._never_ ask a Magi to give advice for we will tell you both yes and no...however I do _suggest_ that perhaps you should try to keep them apart."

"You...you think Bella is the vessel."

Ezekiel sat back in his chair. "I do not know, but the signs clearly point to this little town of Forks. My thoughts if I were you, which I am not...would be that if you cannot prevent this union and it becomes serious, the child should be turned. Sooner, rather than later. Then the prophecy must look elsewhere for culmination. If she is vampire then the unthinkable cannot happen can it?"

"He wants her to live a normal life, at least for a few years." Carlisle said numbly. "She wishes to be like him...like us, but he does not want her to waste herself."

"Honourable intentions on his part...but ones which could lead to disaster. I do not envy you your task my friend. All I _would _say is, do not leave it too late. Alas, now the hour is late for me also...I must take my leave of you." The Wanderer rose to his feet but waved a negligent hand at Carlisle when he also made to stand up. "Do not stir yourself to see me out. I will be around, although perhaps I will conceal myself a little better."

The air around him shimmered and Carlisle blinked as the tall, thin form of the Wanderer morphed into a tall, slim fair-haired man in his late thirties perhaps with broad shoulders dressed in black jeans and a parka.

"I imagine this all clean cut, all American boy avatar will offset suspicions. We _will_ meet again Stregone. Give my regards to your wife and family." He grinned widely at Carlisle and then was gone.

He had gone and Carlisle was left with fear in his heart and the uncomfortable knowledge that he held the future of the world in his hands...it was time to call his family back. He needed them beside him to help hold back the dark. Here in the cold morning light it was easy to disbelief such things as ancient prophesies, but the situation between his son and Charlie Swan's daughter was real and growing more serious each time they met. It seemed a simple thing, to convince Edward to turn her, but it had ramifications for all of them, especially if they wanted to stay in Forks.

How he was to deal with Edward and Bella? And was Ezekiel right in what he inferred? Had he and his family become a parody of everything that a vampire was supposed to be? A bunch of joke vampires. Carlisle shook his head. How ironic, since according to popular human belief, vampires weren't supposed to exist at all.

ooOoo

Bella wasn't sure how she felt as she drove away from the Cullen house. Carlisle had been his usual charming self, but without the family around, she sensed a reserve about him...a reserve about whether she and Edward should even _be_ together. It was the first time she truly realised just how concerned he was about them.

The windscreen wipers swept the rain away from the front windscreen in an arc even as the tears spilled down her cheeks, it seemed to her that the very sky was crying along with her. All she could think about was how she could go on if they had gone away for good and Carlisle had given her no real indication that they hadn't. Oh he had been polite and smiling as always, even offered her refreshment, but very non-committal. Edward had told her that Carlisle was concerned about her eagerness to be turned; he seemed to think that she was too young to make such an important and irreversible decision about her future. A tear slipped down her cheek following by another and in the space of a few seconds it was raising inside the truck as hard as it was raining outside.

If Edward truly loved her, surely he wouldn't want to be away from her? Surely he would feel as lost and desperate as she felt now? Bella had all the fevered angst of the typical teenager in love, when he was there with her the world was right, if a little secretive...when he was gone it was all wrong and she felt like it hurt to breathe. She didn't think _anyone_ could understand how hurt she was feeling, but she was sensible enough to know that bubbling over with enough tears to float a battleship was not the way to get Carlisle on her side.

If Bella had only realised that Carlisle was fully aware and actually quite sympathetic to how she was feeling it might have been easier for her to confide in him, but like most youngsters she felt that nobody in the world would or could understand how bad it was for her, nor would they understand that the only way it would get better was if Edward was to come back.

She furiously wiped her eyes on the sleeve of her jacket. Why the hell could she not stop crying? It was becoming annoying...even to her. She felt like a watering can, tears spurting out even when she didn't want them to. A few had slipped past when she was talking to Carlisle and to her chagrin he merely handed her a box of tissues and waited patiently until she had composed herself. She set her lips in a straight line. Right, the blubbering had to stop as of now, it was giving her a headache and certainly didn't make her look prettier. She tried to look on the positive side, Carlisle hadn't actually _said_ that the family weren't coming back, he just hadn't said when.

She was so busy thinking and planning that she failed to see that she'd passed her dad's patrol car with him and Mark and some other guy in the back going in the opposite direction . She zoomed past him and was only vaguely aware of who it was when she was a few hundred yards down the road. Two large black SUV's with blackened windows were following closely behind the patrol vehicle and she realised with a nervous jolt of her stomach that the occupants had to be the FBI people. At least Edward and the family weren't around to arouse any suspicions. They were safe..._Edward _was safe. This didn't make her feel any better about the idea that vampires like the Cullens, but who fed on humans, were running around loose of course but now at least Carlisle knew.

She pulled up outside the house and straightened her shoulders. Charlie would probably give her one of those mild, hesitant lectures of his and then clear his throat a lot. It was obvious to her, and probably everyone else, that he was constantly walking on eggshells around her and she wasn't experienced enough with having a real full time dad to try and make him feel comfortable. It was a difficult situation and she could have probably done more to help make it better, but for some reason her whole focus centred around Edward and his family instead of her own...and she was only just beginning to realise that she was pushing everyone else in the normal world away in order to keep that focus.

Okay, beginning tomorrow she would seek Jacob out and renew her friendship with him...after all, the invitation to spend the day with the Cullens would probably not happen now since most of them weren't there. If Jacob wasn't around then she could give Jessica a call. Perhaps they could take in a movie in Port Angeles.

These were positive things and should be making her feel a little better...her life didn't have to end because Edward wasn't in it...so why on earth did she still feel like death inside?

An hour later she was cleaning her teeth, getting ready for bed. Her current homework assignment lay in a massed huddle of paper on the bed next to her Mac. It should have been done a couple of days ago, but in all honesty since Edward had yet again done one of his disappearing acts, she had been telephoning her life in instead of actually living it.

_No more. _She mouthed around lips covered in toothpaste foam. _Not going to do that any more. _She was so intent on convincing her disbelieving reflection in the mirror that she didn't hear Charlie come in at all.

"Bella?"

She nearly jumped out of her skin, the toothpaste flew out of her hands and she bumped her head hard on the bathroom cabinet which hung fairly low over the sink.

"Wha...ow...ow! Sorry Dad...I didn't hear you come in."

Charlie folded his arms across his chest and leaned against the door frame. "Yeah...got that. Where in hell did you rush off to like that earlier? One minute you're there, next you're gone."

Bella flushed bright red. How to explain her flying visit to the Cullen house? "I...uh...um had to go to Angela's house, she forgot something to do with homework."

To her relief he seemed to accept that explanation, on the surface at least. She rinsed her mouth and wiped it on the hand towel. Charlie stepped aside as she went through to the bedroom, but any hope that he might just leave it at that died at birth.

"Bella..."

He bent over and picked up one of the loose pieces of paper on the bed. It was covered with her rather untidy scribblings, but was at least recognisable as actual homework. Bella let out a small sigh of relief. If he had dug just a little deeper underneath the pile he would have found her sketches of Edward and the doodles which declared 'Edward and Bella, forever' inscribed inside a large heart with the word forever spelt as '4Ever'.

She sat on the bed and dragged the brush through her tangled hair. "Is everything okay?"

Charlie put the paper down. He put his hand in his jacket pocket and pulled out a small green cannister which he handed to her. She took it and frowned.

"Pepper spray? I don't need this, really."

"I need you to keep it close at hand. Please Bella, do it to keep me happy." He sat down on the end of the bed and gazed at her earnestly. "Honey...I just spent the last two hours with the FBI who think we have a real bad serial killer here. The people in the town aren't stupid, they know something is wrong, they are in a major panic and the Mayor is just _this_ close..." He put his forefinger and thumb together. "...to ordering a curfew. I seriously _don't_ want you running around the countryside on your own. Hell...I'm not even sure if there's safety in numbers with this killer, but if you do go out, you need to have someone with you. This damn prowler incident with Mrs Terreblanche is not helping things either, but at least there's been no sighting of him for twenty-four hours at least."

"Dad...I'm driving." She protested. "We _all_ drive to school."

"I'm least of all sure that being in a vehicle is going to stop this guy Bella." Charlie argued. "I agree that at least it means that you can drive away fast if you get the chance, but we have no idea what he's really capable of... and there's every indication that he wasn't alone. In fact initial findings on other evidence has come back with a report that there was at least one other with him...a female."

Her heart sank. Killers with venomous saliva, male and female. Her mind fluttered to the Cullens. Rosalie and Emmett hunted with each other...she mentally crossed them off her list...Rosalie could probably kill viciously, but Emmett? No...it just didn't fit with what she knew of him and even with Rosalie's bad attitude she would never upset Carlisle or Esme like that. Alice and Jasper? The idea was laughable in Alice's case, but Jasper...he _always _looked like he was teetering on the edge of his control to her, yet she didn't think either of _them_ would want to disappoint Carlisle and Esme either. Carlisle was a definite non starter, as was Esme. Both were intelligent, peace-loving people and she doubted that they would do anything on their own doorstep even if they momentarily lost control. Which brought her to the final family member.

Edward.

She almost burst out laughing at the ludicrous idea of Edward as a vicious serial killer. Edward wouldn't even turn _her,_ never mind bite some random human being he came across. Yes he was over-protective, brooding and very annoying and frustrating with it, and he admitted that after Carlisle turned him he did go on a rampage among the criminal fraternity, but literally ripping someone apart? She would..._couldn't_ believe that of him.

"Bella..." Charlie's patient voice intruded into her thoughts.

She put the pepper spray on her bedside table. "Dad...you don't have to worry. I'll take the spray, even though I won't need it and I will be careful. No picking up hitch-hikers, no stopping in remote places. I'll even suggest to Angela that maybe we should travel to school in the same car. Okay?"

She sorted all the paper into a pile of sorts, closed her Mac and slipped under the comforter. Charlie had no option but to leave it at that.

"Goodnight honey." He said softly. "I'll be gone by the time you get up tomorrow morning, I'm meeting the FBI people at the office and we're going on a hunt for this...these killers, but please...keep the doors and the windows locked when you're in here alone...okay?"

Bella turned the light out. "'Kay. G'night Dad."

He closed the door quietly behind him, but stood for a moment in the hallway.

"Sleep tight baby." He said softly and headed back downstairs. If there ever was a time that he needed to grab a frosty one, that time was tonight.

ooOoo

**The Denali coven, Alaska...**

Alice clapped her hands and laughed with sheer delight. "We're going home." She crowed and then hung her head. "Not that it hasn't been nice staying here."

Carmen laughed and put her arm around the other girl's shoulders. "We do understand you know. East, west...home's best."

"Did you see something?" Esme asked eagerly and then mentally chided herself. Of _course_ she saw something... she was Alice. And it was a good something.

"Carlisle will send for us this afternoon." Alice confirmed. "Although..."

Esme seized her hand anxiously. "_Although?_ Although what?"

Alice glanced at the others who were all hanging on every word. "Well...the FBI are there...in Forks. I saw them arrive last night in a vision. They think that the killings around Forks is the work of a serial killer who bites his victims."

"And you kept this to yourself because?" Rosalie looked furious. Emmett put a gentle hand on her arm.

Alice sighed. "Because I knew you would overreact and there was hardly anything we could do about it while we were up here. It was pretty obvious from what I saw that three of our own are responsible, the same three that we _knew_ were hunting on the edge of our territory. Victoria and her two companions. So nothing was any different. If they came to us it would be handled. The Police and the FBI won't find anything. If anything they'll put _themselves_ in danger by _trying_ to hunt the killers down."

"But Carlisle is _alone _there." Esme's pale face had suddenly become drawn and grey.

"And he can handle Victoria and the others." Alice insisted. "He isn't in danger, I would have seen. He seems very calm. Even his mysterious visitor didn't upset him."

Edward had frozen in his place by the door. "_Bella_..." he whispered.

"Is in no more danger than anyone else in your little town." Eleazar said calmly and Jasper sent out waves of calming thoughts to his panic-stricken brother in order to try and reassure him.

"I have to go back..." Edward dragged his fingers through his hair making it stand up even more on end than it usually did by design.

"No." Esme's tone was calm but firm. "We will travel back together and when Carlisle asks us to return and that's final, not before. _Nobody _is going back early. We have no idea who this visitor of his was or even if he's still there. Carlisle had a very good reason for sending us into safety. We will abide by his decision as head of the family. Bella has her own father to protect her and apparently a large contingent of FBI. If you go back unexpectedly and turn up on Bella's doorstep then you will draw the attention of her father and the other to us."

"He's gone from the house, but not from Forks." Alice came out of her trance in which she was trying to find out more information. "He's staying around, but I can't see his purpose at all. When I try to look it all goes very hazy." She ran over and hugged Edward. "And you need to chill out Edward. I've looked but there is no immediate danger surrounding Bella. In fact, she's going to the movies with a friend this weekend."

Edward scowled. "Which friend would that be? The Quileute boy Jacob?"

Alice's tinkling laugh rang out. "Silly...not the boy...a _girl_. Jessica from school. Really Edward, she does have a life of her own to live without you you know."

Edward grudgingly conceded, but worry still furrowed his brow. "I guess that she will be all right. As long as she doesn't go running off into the woods by herself."

Emmett punched Edward on his shoulder and grinned. "And a fat lot _you _could do to stop that happening if she chose to run off..."

Edward bristled immediately and Eleazar stepped in to calm him down again. "I am sure that her Police Chief father will have it covered Edward." He soothed. "There is nothing you can do right now. If Victoria and her companions were near I am sure that Carlisle would know and will deal with it. Victoria and the others have no reason to connect you with Bella. They are unlikely to target her randomly. In any case you will soon return and see for yourself."

Alice smiled happily, but a small shudder, virtually unnoticed by anyone but Jasper shook her small form. She _had_ foreseen an event in Bella's fairly near future that might possibly put her in jeopardy, but it was something that could be avoided if necessary... and if they were careful. She saw no point in upsetting her brother further. It would keep until they got back to Forks.

ooOoo


End file.
